Starman
by Catgirl the Crazy
Summary: Years before the series starts, Bobbie Draper takes her five-year-old nephew to the Mark Watney exhibit at the Martian Planetary History Museum. As with all things involving small children, it does not go as planned.


A/N: A while back, the authors declared that _The Martian_ and _The Expanse_ take place in the same universe. Then in _Babylon's Ashes_, a Martian ship called the _Mark Watney_ is briefly mentioned. Which got me thinking: What if there's a Mark Watney museum on Mars? Have Alex or Bobbie been there? This fic was the result.

This has massive spoilers for _The Martian_, but none for _The Expanse_. I wrote this with the book continuities in mind, but it's compatible with the TV show/movie.

* * *

Bobbie Draper had never much liked kids. No, that wasn't entirely accurate. She liked kids, but only to a point. They could be cute, and it was fun to make silly faces at them and watch them giggle. But when they cried or threw tantrums or just generally got annoying, she liked having the option to simply hand the kid back to their parents and let them be someone else's problem.

Which made her current situation so frustrating.

"Don't press your face against the glass, David," she said, pointing at the sign and trying not to sound too much like her drill instructor.

Her five-year old nephew scowled and pulled away a few millimeters. Enough to technically comply with the rules. He kept reading the text next to the scale model of the spaceship _Hermes_. Then his face shifted into a wrinkle of confusion. "Did it really take them four months to get to Mars?"

Bobbie leaned over to read the plaque. "That's what it says."

"But that's so _long!_"

Bobbie shrugged. To her, it seemed impressive for a society that had still mostly relied on chemical thrusters and ballistic interplanetary transits. But to a kid who'd grown up knowing that Earth was never more than two weeks away by Epstein, four months would probably seem like an impossibly long trip.

"So why didn't they just go back for him?" David asked after a minute.

"They did, see?" She pointed at another plaque, with a diagram describing something called "The Rich Purnell Maneuver," whoever Rich Purnell was.

"Yeah, but they went all the way back to Earth first. That's stupid, they should have just turned around and gone back for him."

"Um. Well…" Bobbie knew that that there was a reason why the Ares crew had done it that way, and she knew that it had something to do with gravity assists and the pathetically limited capabilities of ion engines of that period. But her class on orbital mechanics at lower university had been years ago, and she barely remembered enough to explain it to herself, much less a child.

Inspiration struck. "Hey you see that lady in the green vest?" Bobbie said, pointing at a docent nearby. "I bet she knows. Why don't you go ask her?"

She sighed as David trotted after the docent, glad for a moment's respite. She couldn't entirely blame her brother for this. Her shore leave had been last minute, and badly timed. Her sister-in-law was visiting friends in Dhanbad Nova, and Benji had been caught up in last-minute work issues. So she had been saddled with David for the last two days.

The Martian Planetary History Museum at Aterpol had been advertising a special exhibit on Mark Watney, First Martian Colonist (by some definitions at any rate). The exhibit had gotten stellar reviews, and Bobbie had thought it would be a good way to keep a five year-old occupied for an afternoon.

She sighed again, staring at the ancient Pathfinder probe across the room without really seeing it. An entire planet, spending billions in time and treasure on the survival of one man. She couldn't decide if that was inspiring or just an obscene waste. Get stranded in the big empty these days, and count yourself lucky if anyone noticed your absence when you didn't show up at port. But there was something admirable about an entire planet- really the entire species- singularly focused on a single goal. Not unlike the terraforming project.

"Scuse me?" said a voice with a slight Mariner Valley drawl.

Bobbie turned and saw a brown skinned man with curly hair holding out his hand terminal. "You mind taking our picture next to the suit?" He gestured at the ancient and clunky looking EVA suit on a stand nearby.

"Sure." Bobbie waited for the man to position himself next to what were presumably his husband and son, then snapped a few pictures that would probably look good in a family newsfeed. He took the terminal back with thanks, and wandered off to the next part of the exhibit.

Bobbie stretched. "OK, David, are you ready to-" She froze. She couldn't see David anywhere. She also couldn't see the docent she'd sent him after. "_Fuck_." Ignoring the glares of the nearby parents, she flagged the closest security guard.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, um, have you seen a little boy? Maybe yay high-" she gestured with a hand- "dark hair, skin like mine?"

The guard frowned and pulled out a hand terminal. "No, but I can contact the others and see if-"

The guard was interrupted by a loud shrieking voice. "Aunt Bobbie! Aunt Bobbie!" She turned to see David pelting across the room at her. He skidded to a stop in front of her. "Guess what?! Guess what?!" He was practically bouncing.

"David, you really should have-"

But he wasn't listening. "Guess what Mark Watney grew his potatoes with?!"

Bobbie gave up. "I don't know. What?"

"_POOP! _" David doubled over in giggles like this was the joke to surpass all jokes. He then grabbed her arm, pulling her toward the life size replica of the Habitation Module and potato farm in the next room.

"Thanks anyway!" she called at the security guard as she was dragged off. Benji owed her big for this.


End file.
